Trio Da Salo to perform at HCC tomorrow

Preview

Howard Live

The Candlelight Concert Society features the Trio Da Salo at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Smith Theatre on the campus of Howard Community College.

The trio will perform a varied program of Beethoven's String Trio Op. 9, No. 3, DohnM-anyi's Serenade in C Major, Op. 10, and Mozart's Divertimento in E-flat Major, K.563. Although the literature for string trio (violin, viola and cello) is not as extensive as that for piano trio (violin, cello and piano), the genre allows for special effects for listeners and performers alike.

The defining characteristic of Western music is tonality as exemplified by harmony, simultaneous events based primarily on major and minor thirds. The prefix "tri" and variants on it dominate the terminology used to describe the most important features of Western music: "triads," "thirds," "tertian harmonies," "tritones."

Whereas different music of the world has developed rhythms and melodies far more complicated than those in Western music, the complexity at the heart of Western music is the variety of simultaneous events built on thirds (chords). Most chords are triads - chords with only three pitches - which are made of two successive major or minor thirds.

Most tonal music is written for four or more instruments (or for instruments that can play four notes at once, such as the piano), which allows the composer to double pitches for emphasis. Since string instruments generally only play one note at a time, a string trio is lean and simple.

Composing for a string trio forces the composer to be economical, resulting in pared-down music with striking clarity. The importance of each instrument, without the piano to round things out and fill things up, makes this genre particularly attractive to performers and listeners who can enjoy and respect the qualities of self-reliance demanded by music for string trio.

The three performers in the Trio Da Salo, violinist Ani Kavafian, violist Barbara Westphal, and cellist Gustav Rivinius, are all international artists with impressive solo and chamber music credentials.

They bring the required technical precision and the artistry needed for this extremely demanding music. The concert will be preceded by a "Meet the Artists and the Music" event that begins at 6:45 p.m.